Catastrophizing as a Cognitive Vulnerability Factor Related to Depression in Workers’ Compensation Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of catastrophizing as a mediator and moderator between life stress and depression in a sample of workers’ compensation patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Pain intensity, life stress (especially work and financial stress), and catastrophizing contributed significantly to depression. Catastrophizing was found to be partially mediating the relationship between life stress and depression and a moderator between social stress and depression. The results supported the role of catastrophizing as a cognitive vulnerability-stress factor related to depression in chronic pain patients. Screening for life stress and intervening early to prevent catastrophizing from occurring in the workers’ compensation rehabilitation process may reduce psychosocial distress and enhance the overall effectiveness of rehabilitation programming for workers’ compensation patients with chronic pain.     

情景记忆成功年老化的神经机制

随着年龄的增长,大部分老年人的情景记忆会出现衰退,但也会有一部分老年人的情景记忆表现出成功的年老化,即记忆成绩较好或随增龄的衰退程度较小。脑保持理论、神经去分化理论、认知储备理论以及神经补偿理论分别从不同角度解释了情景记忆成功年老化的神经机制。基于选择性优化与补偿模型对现有理论进行整合,发现情景记忆成功年老化可能与个体的认知储备水平直接相关：高认知储备的老年人能够对情景记忆相关的脑区和脑网络进行优化且具备更强的神经补偿能力,因而其脑功能(比如,神经表征和神经加工通路的特异性)可能会保持地更好。未来研究需要更多地采用纵向设计来考察各理论之间的关系及其影响因素,从而更好地解释记忆成功年老化的神经机制并为提升老年人的脑与认知健康提供支持。     

When mistakes affecting one’s own group result in compensation: Evidence of a compensatory own goal effect

ObjectivesAlthough sports team members often value their teams highly, they sometimes make mistakes and thereby unintentionally put their teams at a disadvantage. Thus, they should be motivated to compensate for their mistake to resolve this discrepancy. To test this hypothesis, we studied whether professional soccer players compensate for their own goals by scoring regular goals in the same game (Study 1) and possible processes underlying such compensation efforts (Study 2).DesignIn Study 1, we compared how frequently prior own goal scorers scored a regular goal in the same game to (a) their expected goal scoring frequencies and (b) their probabilities to score a regular goal following a regular goal by the opposing team. In Study 2, we investigated four possible processes underlying the expected compensatory efforts.MethodWe analyzed all own goals from the first fifty years of the German Bundesliga (N = 889) and possible ensuing regular goals by the own goal scorer. Moreover, we surveyed amateur soccer players about four motives: group performance, individual performance, individual public image, and group public image.ResultsFollowing their own goals, professional soccer players are particularly likely to score regular goals in the same game (i.e., a compensatory own goal effect). Presumably, they primarily do so to secure a good group performance, but the other motives also play a role.ConclusionsGroup members who make highly visible mistakes are motivated to compensate for the disadvantage they caused. Presumably, they mainly do so to secure a good team performance.     

Cognitive Remediation in Schizophrenia

Cognitive deficits are routinely evident in schizophrenia, and are of sufficient magnitude to influence functional outcomes in work, social functioning and illness management. Cognitive remediation is an evidenced-based non-pharmacological treatment for the neurocognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia. Narrowly defined, cognitive remediation is a set of cognitive drills or compensatory interventions designed to enhance cognitive functioning, but from the vantage of the psychiatric rehabilitation field, cognitive remediation is a therapy which engages the patient in learning activities that enhance the neurocognitive skills relevant to their chosen recovery goals. Cognitive remediation programs vary in the extent to which they reflect these narrow or broader perspectives but six meta-analytic studies report moderate range effect sizes on cognitive test performance, and daily functioning. Reciprocal interactions between baseline ability level, the type of instructional techniques used, and motivation provide some explanatory power for the heterogeneity in patient response to cognitive remediation.     

Improving work motivation and performance in brainstorming groups: The effects of three group goal-setting strategies

An experiment was conducted with 30 groups (n = 120) solving brainstorming tasks under four different group goal conditions: do your best (DYB), directive group goal setting (DGGS), participative group goal setting (PGGS), and PGGS in combination with individual goal setting (PGGS + IGS). As expected, all groups with specific and difficult group goals performed better than DYB control groups. It is hypothesized that these positive effects of group goal setting on brainstorming performance arise because group goal setting counteracts motivation losses such as social loafing. In addition, group goal setting should promote motivation gains arising from social compensation and related cognitive processes, in particular high identification with the group. Consistent with this hypothesis, it was found that group goal setting increased team identification, the readiness to compensate for other weak group members, the value of group success, and the value of group failure. Mediation analysis also indicated that concern to avoid group failure was partly responsible for performance improvements. Finally, no large differences were found between PGGS + IGS and PGGS or DGGS. On this basis group goal setting can be considered a robust strategy for improving work motivation and brainstorming performance in groups.     

Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review of Methods to Improve Treatment Engagement and Self-Efficacy

Cognitive rehabilitation therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are becoming more readily available to the geriatric population in an attempt to curb the insidious decline in cognitive and functional performance. However, people with AD may have difficulty adhering to these cognitive treatments due to denial of memory deficits, compromised brain systems, cognitive incapacity for self-awareness, general difficulty following through on daily tasks, lack of motivation, hopelessness, and apathy, all of which may be either due to the illness or be secondary to depression. Cognitive rehabilitation training exercises are also labor intensive and, unfortunately, serve as a repeated reminder about the memory impairments and attendant functional consequences. In order for cognitive rehabilitation methods to be effective, patients must be adequately engaged and motivated to not only begin a rehabilitation program but also to remain involved in the intervention until a therapeutic dosage can be attained. We review approaches to cognitive rehabilitation in AD, neuropsychological as well as psychological obstacles to effective treatment in this population, and methods that target adherence to treatment and may therefore be applicable to cognitive rehabilitation therapies for AD. The goal is to stimulate discussion among researchers and clinicians alike on how treatment effects may be mediated by engagement in treatment, and what can be done to enhance patient adherence for cognitive rehabilitation therapies in order to obtain greater cognitive and functional benefits from the treatment itself.     

Necessity is the mother of invention: avoidance motivation stimulates creativity through cognitive effort

Compared with approach motivation, avoidance motivation has often been related to reduced creativity because it evokes a relatively inflexible processing style. This finding seems inconsistent with the dual pathway to creativity model, which poses that both flexible and persistent processing styles can result in creative output. Reconciling these inconsistencies, the authors hypothesized that avoidance-motivated individuals are not unable to be creative, but they have to compensate for their inflexible processing style by effortful and controlled processing. Results of 5 experiments revealed that when individuals are avoidance motivated, they can be as creative as when they are approach motivated, but only when creativity is functional for goal achievement, motivating them to exert the extra effort (Experiments 1-4). The authors found that approach motivation was associated with cognitive flexibility and avoidance motivation with cognitive persistence (Experiment 1), that creative tasks are perceived to be more difficult by avoidance- than by approach-motivated individuals, and that avoidance-motivated individuals felt more depleted after creative performance (Experiment 2a, 2b, and 3). Finally, creative performance of avoidance-motivated individuals suffered more from a load on working memory (Study 4). The present results suggest that for people focusing on avoiding negative outcomes, creative performance is difficult and depleting, and they only pay these high cognitive costs when creativity helps achieving their goals.     

Weakening the robustness of perspective: Evidence for a modified theory of compensation in picture perception

Viewed from the center of projection, a perspective picture presents the pictorial depth information of a scene. Knowing the center of projection, one can reconstruct the depicted scene. Assuming another viewpoint is the center of projection will cause one to reconstruct a transformed scene. Despite these transformations, we appreciate pictures from other viewpoints. The compensation hypothesis states that the visible picture surface allows observers to compensate for transformations by locating the center of projection and experiencing pictorial space from there. We show that observers neither completely compensate for nor experience transformations of space as geometry would predict. We propose a modified compensation hypothesis according to which different degrees of visibility of the picture surface invoke different degrees of compensation.     

Weakening the robustness of perspective: evidence for a modified theory of compensation in picture perception.

Viewed from the center of projection, a perspective picture presents the pictorial depth information of a scene. Knowing the center of projection, one can reconstruct the depicted scene. Assuming another viewpoint is the center of projection will cause one to reconstruct a transformed scene. Despite these transformations, we appreciate pictures from other viewpoints. The compensation hypothesis states that the visible picture surface allows observers to compensate for transformations by locating the center of projection and experiencing pictorial space from there. We show that observers neither completely compensate for nor experience transformations of space as geometry would predict. We propose a modified compensation hypothesis according to which different degrees of visibility of the picture surface invoke different degrees of compensation.     

Social cognitive career theory, conscientiousness, and work performance: A meta-analytic path analysis

We performed a meta-analytic path analysis of an abbreviated version of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) model of work performance (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). The model we tested included the central cognitive predictors of performance (ability, self-efficacy, performance goals), with the exception of outcome expectations. Results suggested that a slightly modified version of the model, incorporating a path between ability and goals, provided adequate fit to the data. In addition, we examined alternative pathways through which conscientiousness, a Big 5 personality variable, might operate in concert with the social cognitive variables in predicting work performance. Good fit was found for a model in which conscientiousness is linked to performance both directly and indirectly via self-efficacy and goals. The implications of these results for SCCT, future research, and practical efforts to facilitate work performance are discussed.     

Psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia: Unresolved issues, current trends, and future directions

Psychiatric rehabilitation refers to a treatment philosophy and to a set of assessment and treatment techniques designed to reduce disability and maximize environmental adaptation. The field of psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia is now well developed, and successful interventions exist for teaching many essential community-living skills and for promoting maintenance and generalization of these gains. Recent developments include the creation of new skills-training interventions and cognitive rehabilitation techniques and improvements in the delivery of vocational and substance abuse treatments. As a field, psychiatric rehabilitation is continuing to develop in a manner that is responsive to perceived treatment needs, shortcomings of existing interventions, and developments in related fields (e.g., social psychology, neuroscience of schizophrenia). Some of these developments in theory and research point to areas of conceptual/theoretical weaknesses in existing treatments and assessment measures and suggest directions for further development. This article reviews the current status of a number of areas within the psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia, highlighting future needs.     

When does goal discrepancy induce compensatory effort? An application of self‐completion theory to social issues

The authors review research that applies self‐completion theory to goals targeting other people (as in the case of stereotyping and prejudice), goals that aim at the achievement of a certain social identity and goals based on the social identity. It is demonstrated that goal discrepancies lead to compensation for social as well as for non‐social goals. Based on self‐completion theory it is proposed that the identity‐relevance of the respective goal as well as the goal relevance of the subsequent task are of major importance considering the individuals’ compensation. The authors argue that the consideration of these factors advance our understanding of social phenomena.     

不同任务难度条件下认知老化对冲突适应能力的影响

采用任务冲突范式考察在不同任务难度条件下认知老化对个体冲突适应能力的影响。实验1采用经典Flanker任务考察在需要较少认知资源的低难度任务上,老年人与年轻人的冲突适应能力是否有差异;实验2则进一步采用Flanker与Simon任务的交叉整合任务,探讨在需要更多认知资源的高难度任务上,认知老化对冲突适应能力的影响。结果表明在低难度任务条件下,认知老化并未对冲突适应能力产生影响;而当冲突调控所需认知资源超出老化大脑最大代偿潜能时,老年人的冲突适应能力受损严重,认知老化会显著影响冲突适应能力。本研究最终支持了脑功能代偿说和资源限制理论。     

Cognitive rehabilitation: attention and neglect

Cognitive neuroscience can make a significant contribution towards the development of a scientific basis for the practice of brain rehabilitation. Though rehabilitation is a vast worldwide industry, there is little scientific basis for the training and therapy that are designed to help damaged brain circuits to recover. The systematic application of cognitive neuroscience models to rehabilitation can not only foster better, more theoretically grounded rehabilitation, but the models themselves can be tested and modified by data generated in rehabilitation-oriented research. The example of unilateral spatial neglect is used here to show how non-intuitive but clinically tractable methods can emerge out of systematic application of cognitive neuroscience to the problem of how to foster dynamic change and recovery in the damaged brain. Examples are given of recently developed rehabilitation methods for unilateral spatial neglect that are both derived from theoretical models of cognitive function, and that feed back into these models. These include dorsal–ventral stream interactions, perceptuo–motor interactions, interhemispheric inhibitory dynamics, and arousal–spatial attention interactions. It will be to the mutual benefit of basic cognitive neuroscience and rehabilitation if this type of research is expanded into other domains of cognitive function, in which similar theory–practice interactions exist.     

Efficacy of Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapies for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Older Adults: Working Toward a Theoretical Model and Evidence-Based Interventions

To evaluate the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation therapies (CRTs) for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Our review revealed a need for evidence-based treatments for MCI and a lack of a theoretical rehabilitation model to guide the development and evaluation of these interventions. We have thus proposed a theoretical rehabilitation model of MCI that yields key intervention targets–cognitive compromise, functional compromise, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and modifiable risk and protective factors known to be associated with MCI and dementia. Our model additionally defines specific cognitive rehabilitation approaches that may directly or indirectly target key outcomes–restorative cognitive training, compensatory cognitive training, lifestyle interventions, and psychotherapeutic techniques. Fourteen randomized controlled trials met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Studies markedly varied in terms of intervention approaches and selected outcome measures and were frequently hampered by design limitations. The bulk of the evidence suggested that CRTs can change targeted behaviors in individuals with MCI and that CRTs are associated with improvements in objective cognitive performance, but the pattern of effects on specific cognitive domains was inconsistent across studies. Other important outcomes (i.e., daily functioning, quality of life, neuropsychiatric symptom severity) were infrequently assessed across studies. Few studies evaluated long-term outcomes or the impact of CRTs on conversion rates from MCI to dementia or normal cognition. Overall, results from trials are promising but inconclusive. Additional well-designed and adequately powered trials are warranted and required before CRTs for MCI can be considered evidence-based.     

An empowerment model of memory training

The authors outline an empowerment model of memory rehabilitation. Unlike conventional cognitive rehabilitation methods, clients' plan and control the treatment process from the earliest stages of therapy. The client identifies functional goals and the therapy is geared to achieve those goals. The empowerment model also emphasizes domain-specific compensatory training. Memory strategies and prosthetic devices are chosen so as to maximize transfer of training in the workplace, training programme, or in the client's activities of daily living. Group therapy involves clients teaching their newly learned skills to other clients. The authors present research findings to document the efficacy of the empowerment model, describe its limitations, and discuss how the model can be implemented effectively.     

Feasibility,Acceptability, and Preliminary Target Engagement of a Healthy Physical Activity Promotion Intervention for Bulimia Nervosa: Development and Evaluation via Case Series Design

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is characterized by a pattern of binge eating and compensatory behaviors as well as an overemphasis on body weight and shape in self-evaluation. Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficacious, recent reviews suggest that only 30% of patients reach abstinence at posttreatment. One potential reason for these poor outcomes is that CBT fails to adequately reduce elevated negative affect (NA) and shape and weight concern, which have been shown to be correlated with poorer treatment outcomes in BN. Therefore, novel treatment components that focus on improving NA and shape and weight concern are needed in order to enhance outcomes. Promoting physical activity (PA) is a promising avenue through which to reduce NA and improve body image in healthy individuals, other clinical populations (e.g., individuals with depression or anxiety), and individuals with eating disorders. While prescribing PA for individuals with BN has been controversial (due to concerns that exercise maybe be used to compensate for binge episodes or become driven or compulsive), this approach may have many benefits, including promoting healthy lifetime exercise habits that reduce likelihood of relapse through the improvement of emotion regulation skills and weight regulation.Given the promise of PA for targeting key maintenance factors of BN, we developed a 12-session healthy PA promotion intervention for BN and tested initial feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary target engagement in an iterative case series design (n = 3). The treatment provided cognitive-behavioral skills designed to identify, practice, and achieve behavioral goals while asking patients to engage in up to 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA per week, which was preplanned during each session with the client’s therapist.Results suggested that the healthy PA promotion intervention was both feasible and acceptable to deliver. In addition, the intervention resulted in a clinically significant decrease in BN symptom frequency in each participant. Further, participants showed clinically significant decreases in NA and shape and weight concern.The current study demonstrates that healthy PA interventions can have beneficial effects on BN symptoms, NA, and shape and weight concern. However, due to the small sample size, conclusions must be treated with caution. Future research should investigate additional approaches for promoting healthy PA and include a larger sample in order to further test initial efficacy of this treatment approach.     

The interactive effects of prior knowledge and text structure on memory for cognitive psychology texts

Background: Interest in the interactive effects of prior knowledge and text structure on learning from text is increasing but experimental manipulations of knowledge and structure variables often produce findings that do not help teachers to select expository texts for students. Aims: We aimed to extend the ecological validity of previous findings by asking students with a high or low level of discipline‐relevant knowledge to read texts characteristic of those they would normally encounter. A compensation effect was hypothesized, where high prior knowledge would compensate for a lack of text structure and text structure would compensate for a lack of prior knowledge. Samples: One hundred and ninety‐five undergraduate psychology students (144 Year 1 students and 51 Year 3 students) were allocated to a high knowledge (HiPK) or low knowledge (LoPK) group on the basis of their performance on a word association test. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to one of five text structure groups (compare/contrast, sequence, classification, enumeration, generalization) and asked to study two cognitive psychology passages before recalling the main points of the text immediately afterwards and after a delay of 2 weeks. The five text structures were placed on an ‘organizational continuum’ according to the degree of structure/organization in the 10 passages. Results: A compensation effect did not emerge. Recall was high when texts were well structured and readers had prior knowledge, but recall was poor when texts were less structured, regardless of the level of prior knowledge. Conclusions: Readers benefit most from texts that challenge pre‐existing mental representations.     

Why are attitude–behaviour inconsistencies uncomfortable? Using motivational theories to explore individual differences in dissonance arousal and motivation to compensate

Using cognitive dissonance theories and self-determination theory, we explored the role of individual differences in global and contextual motivational orientations on dissonance arousal processes following spontaneous attitude–behaviour inconsistencies (ABIs). Study 1 (N = 382) showed that individual differences in global motivation relate to the frequency of ABIs and dissonance arousal across important life domains. Studies 2 (N = 282) and 3 (N = 202) showed that individual differences in contextual motivation toward the environment predict the relative frequency of ABIs and the quantity and quality of proximal motivation to compensate for ABIs in that context. Autonomous motivation was associated with a tendency to compensate for ABIs to both reduce dissonance and restore self-integrity. Controlled motivation disposed individuals to reduce dissonance to protect ego-invested self-structures, and to be indifferent to non self-threatening ABIs. Amotivation left people indifferent to ABIs. Individual differences in motivational orientations could explain why ABIs are uncomfortable and motivate people to compensate differently when they face ABIs.